This month we’ve been taking giant steps with the localization of e-books for learning foreign languages.
The idea is to take original texts, written for students learning Italian or English, and ‘localize’ them into other languages, so as to make them suitable for those learning French, Spanish, German or other languages.
That means rather more than just translating them. For example, a story written for people learning Italian, about a British guy who comes to Italy and falls in love with his teacher, would be localised for students of French with a different language, city, female protagonist’s name, and so on.
Over the weekend I read/listened to three ‘easy readers’ in Spanish and the same three in French. Easy readers are a hugely effective way of building listening and reading skills in a foreign language, so after just an hour or two I felt I’d made progress!
Admittedly, I studied French at school (over thirty years ago). But I’ve never done any Spanish… Perhaps it’s because I speak Italian that I was able to follow the texts and audio fairly well.
To find out more about how easy readers can supplement a traditional language course or self-study program, take a look at our new online shop, which is live already but will be officially launched in time for the new school year in September!